


Tantrum

by Nightimer



Series: Tantrum [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Non-Consensual Spanking, Spanking, Team as Family, Temper Tantrums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23238304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightimer/pseuds/Nightimer
Summary: Harry has a habit of letting his temper get the better of him. When he takes it too far while working on a project with Cisco, Joe decides to step in and give him a little advice. Of course Harry doesn't take it well at all and Joe has to resort to other tactics to get Harry to listen to him.
Series: Tantrum [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008216
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	Tantrum

**Author's Note:**

> Started re-watching the Flash and suddenly realized how much I love Harrison Wells. Especially "Harry." He can be such a brat sometimes. Enjoy and forgive any mistakes.

Joe sighed as he made his way wearily down the long curved corridor that lead to the main control room of Star Labs. This latest wave of meta human attacks has had him and the team running all over Central City looking for a man Cisco had christened 'Synthesizer', due to his ability to manipulate sound waves to either mute or amplify them. Of course he had been using his powers for destruction and mayhem. What else would he use them for in this city?

Joe sighed again as he shrugged out of his suit coat and draped the garment over his left arm. He needed a break, badly. At least here at Star Labs with his family, blood and honorary, he might be able to find a little bit of peace and quiet to help recharge him for the next crises this 'Synthesizer' would undoubtedly unleash.

A white board eraser came flying through the doorway he was just about to enter, narrowly missing his head, and thunked against the corridor wall before rebounding off it to land just inches from his dress shoe. Joe stared at it in confused shock for a moment before the sound of raised voices regained his attention and he quickly made his way into the large room.

"I told you that isn't going to work!" Harry all but shouted at Cisco as he pointed a long finger at some cobbled together pieces of metal and electronics that the younger man was frankensteining into some technological monstrosity. At least that was what it looked like to Joe.

"And I told _you_ that it _will_ if you would just stop criticizing it and start helping me for a change!" Cisco shot back as he forcibly stood up to face the taller man, his chair rolling away behind him.

Joe could practically feel the tension in the room as the two men squared off, both with hands on their hips, staring each other down.

"I wasn't criticizing I was critiquing. Critiquing helps to improve…," Harry growled but was cut short at Cisco's scoff of disbelief.

"Not the way you do it," he sarcastically replied and that set off a whole new argument between the two scientists, their voices rising proportionally with their anger.

Joe leaned in close to Caitlin who was seated behind the main computer console and was watching the two with a long suffering frown.

"How long have they been going at it like this?" he asked under his breath as Harry took a dry erase marker and flung it in the shorter man's direction. Joe noted that while the older man had thrown it in anger, he had deliberately aimed it to harmlessly fly well over Cisco's head, although you couldn't tell that by the way Cisco was carrying on.

"You could have taken my eye out!"

"One eye or two, you'd still be as narrow sighted as you are now."

"Since two o'clock yesterday but it only got this bad about ten minutes ago," she replied quietly although she needn't had bothered since the two men in question were well beyond caring about their audience.

Joe set his coat down on the console and rubbed a hand over his head and down his face. This was not the peace and quiet he had hoped for. He, like the rest of team Flash, had observed the unique relationship that Harry and Cisco had. The two fought like an old married couple but the affection underneath all their bickering was just as apparent. They enjoyed getting on each other's nerves but sometimes they could take it too far, especially when they were working on something serious that the team needed to stop a meta human. Like right now to be exact.

Guess it was time to put on the Dad pants and put a stop to it. Man he was getting tired of feeling like the only adult around here.

"Alright fella's…," he began but the other two ignored him, another marker sailed through the air to join it's brethren under a desk somewhere across the room.

"Hey, that's enough…," he tried again, this time injecting a little more sternness into his voice. Again he received no response. When Cisco picked up his own marker and aimed to throw it at Harry, Joe stepped out from behind the console and slammed his hand down hard on it's smooth surface, causing a startlingly loud noise in the large room that made Caitlin jump in her seat.

"I said that's _enough_!" he barked at the two men who jerked in surprise at the volume and absolute authority in the detective's voice. That was a voice that was to be obeyed or else.

As one, they both turned from each other to face him, the marker falling from Cisco's finger's as they both stared at him with wide eyes for several seconds. Harry recovered first and took a step back from Ramon, taking his glasses off to wipe them calmly with the hem of his form fitting black shirt.

"Detective," he said in way of greeting, meeting his eyes and unconsciously slipping into his 'Harrison Wells' persona, the one that made him appear mature and professional, in total control.

Joe cocked his head and gave him a look that clearly conveyed that he wasn't buying it.

Harry frowned and looked down, suddenly very invested in cleaning his glasses.

"Oh, hey Joe. When did you, I mean how…long," Cisco nervously questioned, sharing a quick unreadable look with Harry.

"Long enough to see you two acting like a couple of complete jackasses," he commented dryly. "You know, for being two of the most brilliant people I know, you both can be remarkably stupid sometimes," he added, not surprised when both men gave him an affronted look.

Harry let out an irritated sigh and put his glasses back on with one hand, dropping his mature persona and turning away from the detective and reaching for a discarded screwdriver on Cisco's makeshift work bench, needing something to fiddle with. He twirled it between his hands as he looked over the mess of equipment Cisco had amassed in order to build his 'sonic oscillator,' or whatever he called it.

"And for being such a highly regarded investigator Detective, your observations can be remarkably incorrect sometimes," the dark haired man said over his shoulder testily. "We were simply having a disagreement over Ramon's current engineering project," he added as he picked up the object in question and turned it over in his hands, screwdriver aimed and ready.

"Oh is that what we were doing?" Cisco quipped, quickly reaching over and yanking his creation out of Harry's hands. "Seemed to me that you were being a condescending douche because I was using my own calculations instead of yours."

"My calculations are correct," Harry glared at him as he carelessly discarded his tool onto the pile of electronics the younger man had been cannibalizing from. 

Cisco set his oscillator back down on the table and crossed his arms.

Caitlin shook her head before hiding her face in her hands.

Joe could feel a massive head ache coming on.

"And the great Harrison Wells can never be wrong can he!?" Cisco gestured dramatically towards the other man.

"No," Harry said simply and with absolute conviction.

Cisco groaned and looked heavenward.

"Why, out of all the Well's out there, did you send us _this_ salty bastard?" Cisco inquired to the universe in general, hands raised in questioning surrender.

"Fine. You don't want my help? Do it by yourself," he grumbled as he turned to walk away.

"Good! You'd probably just break it anyways!" Cisco called out as he turned his back on him. "Should have just contacted the _council of Wells_ '," he added not so quietly under his breath.

Harry immediately stopped and stiffened. Cisco knew how he felt about his doppelgängers, he _knew_. Unable to control himself, he quickly turned around and before anyone could stop him, he grabbed Cisco's device out from under him and threw it as hard as he could at the nearest wall. Everyone watched in absolute silence as the intricate machinations of Cisco's design shattered into dozens of pieces, scattering into a waterfall of metal and wires across the floor.

"Why don't you see if the _council of Wells_ ' can fix that?" he said tightly before turning on his heel and walking out the door, pushing past Iris and Barry who had come running when they had heard the crash.

"What happened?" Barry asked in confusion as he glanced back and forth between his friends, looking for possible danger.

" _Harry_ happened," Cisco said flatly as he walked over to the wall his creation had been dashed against and stared numbly at the destruction.

Joe took a deep breath and steeled himself.

"Look, just take care of Cisco," he said as he turned and made is way to the doorway. "I'll take care of Harry."

Barry and Iris shared a worried look between them. While they had rarely been subjected to it growing up, they both recognized that particular look on Joe's face. Someone was about to get one hell of a lecture. 

Barry actually kind of felt bad for Harry. He turned to watch Iris bend down and lay a hand on Cisco's shoulder as he knelt on the floor amidst his destroyed work, gathering the largest pieces into a dejected pile.

Okay, maybe he didn't feel quite so bad for Harry now. The man had definitely earned the tongue lashing he was about to get. 

*******************************************************************************

Joe could hear the angry step of Well's boots just around the bend in the curving corridor and quickly followed. 

"Harry," he called out as he caught up with the other man. Well's did not stop though and kept walking towards the lab he sometimes shared with Cisco.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," Joe growled out at the other man's retreating back, not bothering to hide the irritation he was feeling at the moment.

"And I can hear you," Harry replied in that annoyingly superior tone of his as he continued down the hallway, determined to avoid the conversation he knew the detective wanted to have with him. Unfortunately a firm hand wrapping around his left bicep made that notion all but impossible as Joe abruptly yanked him to a halt and spun the lankier man around to face him.

Harry immediately yanked his arm out of Joe's grasp, disliking the physical touch but hating the fact that Joe could actually make him stop all the more.

" _What_ Detective, do you _want_ ," Harry growled out in that low raspy voice of his he adopted when he was really pissy.

Joe stared hard at him as he raised a pacifying hand up to hopefully stall another tantrum. Harry could become down right unpredictable when he didn't get his way. Didn't mean Joe was going to let him get away with it though.

"You mind telling me what the hell all that was about back there?" he asked as he jerked a thumb back in the direction of the control room. He watched as Harry narrowed his gaze in annoyance. It was obvious to both men that Joe was here to call Harry out on the carpet and that fact rankled the slim scientist to no end.

"Actually Detective, I do mind," he said simply, his body language practically shouting for Joe to back off.

"That's not the answer I wanted," Joe stated as he raised an eyebrow at the dark haired man, indicating he had better do better then that for an explanation.

"Yeah, well, It's the answer you're getting," Harry quipped back testily, crossing his arms defensively across his chest. He was an adult, an accomplished scientist and entrepreneur on his Earth. The head of Star labs. He wasn't one of Joe West's kids and he certainly didn't have to answer to him like one either. 

"Look," Joe began as he squared his shoulders, trying his best to not loose his temper. "I know you and Cisco are under a lot of stress trying to come up with…something to stop this meta human, but that does not give you the right to treat your friends like that," he sated firmly as he watched the other man look heavenward in exasperation before closing his eyes and tilting his head downwards. Wells didn't like to make direct eye contact when he was feeling uncomfortable and tended to look everywhere but at the person he was speaking with until he knew he had the upper hand in the conversation.

Harry nodded and glanced over his shoulder to the entrance of his lab he had almost made his escape into. He really didn't have time for this. He turned back and finally made eye contact again with Joe.

"Okay fine," Harry growled out. He uncrossed one of his arms and indicated the two of them. "Are we done here?" he asked impatiently.

Joe was caught completely off-guard by the dismissive tone and couldn't help opening his mouth in surprise.

Seeing Joe's shocked expression gave Harry the confidence that he had taken the upper hand in this conversation.

"I…," Joe struggled to say but was cut off by the other man abruptly turning away from him, leaving the detective with the view of the back of his black t-shirt.

"I think we're done here," Harry said to no one in particular as he took the last few steps towards the threshold to his lab and disappeared inside it, leaving the flabbergasted detective alone in the empty corridor.  
  
Joe could practically hear the smirk in the scientist's voice.

"Oh _hell_ no…" Joe growled as he lowered his head and followed Harry in to the lab. He entered the messy space to see Harry make his way over to one of the many tables piled high with electronics and sit himself down in the rolling chair that was positioned next to it.

"We are _not_ done," Joe stated firmly as he made a B-line for the other man who had hunched him self over something on the table, doing his damnedest to ignore Joe's presence. 

"You said what you wanted to say Detective and I heard it so I believe that meets the criteria set down for the definition of 'done,' so…,"

Joe grabbed the back of the swivel chair and pulled hard enough to spin it's occupant away from the table to face him. He stopped any further movement by gripping the arm rests in both hands and leaning forward, effectively trapping Harry in the chair in the process.

"What the he…?" Harry began, full of belligerent indignation.

Joe leaned even further forward, forcing the smaller man to lean back as far as he could against the seat back, putting him on the defensive, on the wrong foot. He caught Harry's confused baby blues with his own smoldering mahogany ones.

"You shut your mouth and you listen to me Harry," Joe began, allowing his voice to fill with the natural assertiveness gained from his many years of being on the force, as well as being a father. He was pleased to see Harry follow those simple instructions, even if he wasn't giving the other man a choice in the matter.

"What you just did out there was unacceptable and childish. I am actually embarrassed for you," he began but Harry cut him off.

"Well don't be Detective. My actions are my own," he growled, frustrated with this conversation the other man was intent on forcing him to endure.

"Not when I have a say in the matter," Joe replied firmly, causing Harry to stare at him in dawning outrage.

How dare this man…

"You don't have a say, you don't have any type of…!" Harry exploded as he tried to push himself up out of the chair to his feet. A large and heavy hand landed on his left shoulder, wrapping slightly around and behind his neck, denying him the leverage he needed to stand and pushing him down more firmly into the seat of the chair. Harry landed with a grunt and simply glared up at Joe West, hating how easily he seemed to be able to manhandle him.

"When you are having a negative affect on this team you can be damn sure that I will step in and put a stop to it if I have to. I may not have super powers or a massive intellect, but I know how to keep a broken family together and I will do everything in my limited power to keep us that way, even if that means busting your ass when you're too far gone to stop yourself on your own, you get me?" Joe finished, eyeing the dark haired man sitting before him. He could tell that Harry was angry, but hopefully he wasn't too angry that he hadn't been listening to Joe's words. He waited a moment to let his words sink in, even to allow Harry a moment to speak if he was so inclined, before removing his hand from the other man's shoulder and straightening up.

Harry glowered up at the other man for several seconds, his brain trying to deal with the roller coaster of emotions he was feeling at the moment. Anger, embarrassment, regret, cycling rapidly through them before settling on the anger. Joe had flat out said Harry would have to answer to him if his behavior strayed outside the hypothetical boundary of what the detective thought was acceptable. And that was completely unacceptable to Harry.

He needed Joe to leave right now or he was going to do something he was going to regret. The fastest way for him to accomplish this was for him to simply parrot out the answer the other man wanted to hear, then he would go and leave Harry alone to fume in peace.

"Fine," he replied, swiveling his chair back towards the desk, grabbing a pencil and stabbing out some notes on a small pad of paper that had been left there.

Joe took in the hunched over form of Harry's back, the tenseness in his shoulder's. He recognized an avoidance tactic when he saw one. 

"Just…fine?" Joe asked, waiting patiently for some type of elaboration.

"Yes," was all harry ground out, not bothering to look up from his scribblings.

"Alright, so it's fine. Well since we got that out of the way, you now need to go back out there and apologize to Cisco. Then help him rebuild that doohickey he was working on before you pancaked it against a wall," Joe declared calmly as he watched the other man closely. He wasn't exactly sure what Harry's response would be to that but he was positive it was going to be a little more reactive then just a simple 'fine'.

The sound of the pencil snapping in Harry's grasp confirmed it.

With a sudden surge of movement, Harry stood up from the chair and whirled around to face Joe, tossing the two broken pieces of his pencil in the other man's direction.

"Get out…" Harry all but whispered, seething with barely controlled rage as he stared the other man down, daring him to push that final button that would send him over the edge.

"First of all," Joe began as he held up a hand in a stopping gesture. "You need to calm down. Second of all, I'm not leaving until you do as I ask and apologize to Cisco." He could see that Harry was strung so tight that he could snap at any moment. Still, he refused to back down. If he was going to have any hope of helping the other man curb his more emotional outbursts then he was going to have to stand his ground and not give in. 

"You going to make me?" Harry asked dangerously, staring hard into Joe's unmoving face, the blue of his eyes flashing without the need of meta human powers. 

"Are you going to make me make you?" Joe shot back, completely unfazed by the challenge in the other man's voice and expression.

"The only thing I'm trying to make you _do_ detective, is leave me alone," Harry hissed tightly.

"Well the only way you're going to do that is if you do like I asked," he retorted. "That's the only option I'm giving you here so you'd better wise up and do it," he added ominously. If looks could kill then Joe would have been dead a hundred times over at this point.

"Okay then if you won't leave, I will," Harry stated as he quickly made to step around the other man and make his escape through the door.

"Nuh uh," Joe said as he reached out with his left hand to snag Harry's arm as he tried to push past him. He felt the tensing of muscle's in the slim arm and quickly brought up his other arm to block the sudden punch Harry had just aimed at his face.

He should have known Harry would make this as difficult as possible.

With reflexes honed by years of experience on the force, Joe quickly captured Harry's right wrist in his hand and forcibly yanked the other man around so he had his back to Joe. Keeping his grip on the wrist, Joe swiftly wrapped his left arm around Harry's left side, free arm, and stomach, fisting his hand in the material of Harry's shirt to grab onto the front of his belt, solidifying his grip and pulling the smaller man back against him, caging him in and limiting his ability to move. Without giving the other man a chance to retaliate, he pulled Harry's right arm behind him and secured it to the small of his back, forcing the dark haired man to bend forward slightly at the pressure. In only a matter of seconds, Joe had Harry completely immobilized.

"let go of me!" Harry shouted as he twisted in the other man's grip, trying his best to yank his right arm free seeing how his left was effectively pinned to his side by Joe's tight bear hug.

"Not until you and I get a few things straight," Joe ground out through the strain of trying to restrain a furious Harrison Wells. He dragged Harry backwards to where the discarded chair sat empty and using his right foot, Joe jammed the right armrest up and under the work table so it was no longer able to swivel. He then yanked Harry a little to the right of the chair so he could plant his left foot up on the seat. With his foot anchored and his leg bent at a perfect angle, Joe immediately hauled Harry against his leg and forced the other man to bend at the waist, pushing him forward and down.

Harry felt Joe release his bear hug for a moment but before he could take advantage of it, he found himself being forced down over the detective's thigh. His breath hitched as his stomach made contact with the hard muscles of joe's leg. He flung out his now free left hand and grasped the tabletop in a desperate attempt to regain some equilibrium as his boots momentarily lost contact with the ground and all his weight was supported solely by Joe.

"Wha…what?!" Harry called breathlessly over his shoulder as he scrambled to get his feet back under him. He was only marginally successful as Joe had him bent so far over his leg that only the toes of his boots were able to remain on the floor. His right wrist was still pinned behind his back and he could feel Joe transfer the captive wrist to his other hand while simultaneously putting pressure across Harry's back with his left forearm, pinning him securely in place over his knee.

"You brought this on yourself," Joe explained sternly to the back of Harry's head before turning his attention to another part of the scientist's anatomy. He raised his right hand high and brought it back down to connect firmly with the seat of Harry's black pants.

"Ow!" Harry cried out in surprise as the sting from the swat registered in his brain. When another hit landed a second later just below the first, Harry quickly assessed the situation in his mind and realized that he needed to extradite himself from this insanity as quickly as possible.

"Have you lost your mind?! _Stop_!" Harry yelled as he struggled mightily over Joe's knee, twisting and turning, his feet scrabbling against the polished floor.

Still the swats came. Over and over they found their target no matter how much he squirmed. Or cursed for that matter. He pulled his left hand back and placed it against Joe's hip, trying to push himself up but the other man's hold was absolute and Harry simply didn't have the leverage he needed to overcome the force Joe was supplying to his back to keep him pinned.

"You all but asked for this Harry," Joe began as he slapped his hand down on one cheek before mirroring it on the other, hearing the lanky man hiss in discomfort. "All you had to do was listen, then make a simple apology. But instead you decided to throw another tantrum. I don't know how you handled tantrums with Jesse, but those in the West household got their backside's warmed until they calmed down," He explained as he swatted him again.

"I'm not part of the West household…" Harry ground out between breaths as he struggled to get up, grasping at any intellectual opportunity to make Joe see how asinine this course of action was.

"Yes you are," Joe answered quickly and confidently. It was stated so matter of factually that it gave the scientist a moment of pause. He had heard the absolute sincerity behind it. But the sentiment was something he was going to have to examine later. Right now he had to somehow convince the detective to let him up. 

"Ow!" He bit down on a curse as Joe landed a few heavy handed slaps to the undercurve of his backside. "Okay, okay! You made your point," Harry growled, pushing again against Joe's leg in another attempt at freedom. Joe responded by swatting hard on his upper thigh, causing the other man to jerk his hand back down to the desk top for support. That one had been the hardest yet and Harry had to bite down on his lower lip to keep from yelping out loud, although he couldn't hold back the gasp of pain when Joe did the same to his other leg. 

"I think I will have made my point when you stop fighting me," Joe explained as he added a few more smacks to the back of Harry's legs, causing them to jerk in response.

"If you think for one second that I'm just going to lie here and take this abuse quietly you've got another thing coming detective," Harry tossed over his shoulder as he tried to pull his captured wrist from Joe's hold. If he could just get that one free then with both hands, he would be able to produce enough force to counteract the weight pushing him down.

"It's not abuse, it's a spanking and you know it, so stop being so dramatic and calm down," Joe admonished as he continued to pepper the backside over his knee with stinging pops of his hand.

Harry cringed when Joe had mentioned 'spanking'. He knew that this was exactly what Joe was doing to him and it made it all the more embarrassing. He did not want to calm down. He wanted to rage at the injustice, deck Joe West right in the face, he wanted to throw every piece of equipment in this lab and watch it all shatter into tiny unrecognizable parts. Here was the great Harrison Wells, turned over another man's knee for a sound spanking because he had thrown a temper tantrum. What if one of the others' came in and saw him like this? He would never be able to live it down. Never.

Even though he was loath to admit it, deep down Harry knew he couldn't physically free himself from the other man's hold. Joe was fit for his age and had the type of muscle mass that was better suited for strength compared to the more lean muscle that Harry possessed. Their shared history had already shown that Joe had absolutely no problem with manhandling Harry with ease when he needed to. It went against every instinct that he possessed but he finally came to the conclusion that in order to bring this ridiculous spectacle to an end before anyone walked in and discovered them, Harry was going to have capitulate to Joe's demands. At least for now. It went against his very nature to submit like this but he didn't really see any other alternatives.

Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes in resignation. With considerable difficulty, he forced his muscles to relax against Joe's hold and lay still as the other man swatted him a couple more times before registering the change in Harry's posture.

Joe slowed his hand as he looked down at the dark head bowed towards the floor. Just a moment before Harry had been fighting him for all his worth and now, now he had gone still and quiet. Joe could still feel the tension in the lean form pulled tight against him but Harry was no longer actively fighting him. Joe lowered his hand and rested it against Harry's hip, curling his fingers around him, holding him close.

"Huh, that was fast," he commented, surprised that Wells had given up so quickly.

Harry scoffed and shook his head once as he shifted slightly to relieve some of the pressure on his abdomen.

"I'm a fast learner Detective," was all he said and Joe couldn’t suppress the snort of laughter that the dry comment produced. He eased his hold on the other man slightly, releasing his wrist and removing his forearm from across his back to replace it with an equally heavy hand between the slim shoulder blades, still keeping Harry pinned.

"Have you calmed down?" He asked pointedly, tapping Harry's right hip a couple times as a reminder as to what the wrong answer would earn him.

"I'm as calm as any person could be expected to be in this situation Detective so I suggest you take what you can get," Harry answered truthfully, as he pulled his arm back to the front to place his right hand next to his left on the tabletop for support.

Joe reached a hand under Harry's front and pulled the other man up and off his knee with surprising gentleness compared to the damage he had just inflicted on Harry's ass. He let his hands circle around Harry's upper arms and used that grip to help steer the other man towards the chair he had not so long ago vacated, positioning Harry before it and gently but firmly, pushing the other man down into it.

Harry hissed when his backside made contact with the hard seat. The pain in his posterior was already uncomfortable but the added pressure of his weight on it made it doubly so. He immediately tried to stand back up and hopefully put some distance between him and the man who had just spanked him like a toddler, but once again Joe halted his progress and forced him to remain seated. Harry leaned back and sighed, looking anywhere but at Joe, wondering what the other man had in store for him now. Please for the love of God, don't let it be more lecturing. He had suffered enough.

"Now I know the last thing you want to do is listen to me right now but hear me out," Joe began, pointedly ignoring Harry's groan of protest and tapping him firmly on his knee to make him look him in the eyes. "You are a brilliant man and we need you. We even like you. Most, if not all of what we have accomplished so far could not have been done without your help and I know I speak for everyone when I say we are glad you are here. But sometimes you can act like a real ass and treat your friends badly, taking out your frustrations on them instead of turning to them for help. Those kids look up to you, respect you, especially Cisco. So when you act like a two year old throwing a tantrum, you're not only making the situation worse, but you are also hurting this family."

Harry kept his gaze locked on Joe's for the first half of this mini speech but couldn't keep it during the second half and turned his head to the right to stare into the space over Joe's shoulder. He knew all this. He was an incredibly intelligent man and while he could be a little socially awkward, he was well aware of how his actions could effect those around him. He wasn't blind to the faith the others had in him, the respect, dare he say, even love? They accepted him even though he wore the face of the man who had ruined everything good in their lives, even after he had betrayed them to save his daughter. They still cared for him and he in turn for them. But Harry was who he was and asking someone to change a fundamental part of what made them who they were was unreasonable and…

"I'm not asking you to change who you are," Joe added and Harry's eyes snapped back to lock onto his, suddenly suspicious and concerned that Joe had somehow gained the ability to read minds like D.A. Cecile Horton.

"All I'm asking is that you acknowledge when you are acting out of line, when you are loosing control, and to take a moment to breath, to actually think through your emotions instead of just acting on them and negatively affecting those around you," Joe leaned down so their eyes were level. "Can you do that?" he asked quietly.

Harry held his gaze for a few moments, contemplating everything that had just transpired, everything Joe had said to him, and his own feelings on the matter. While half of him wanted to burst up from the chair and slug Joe so hard his grandparents would feel it, the other half of him understood that he had acted irrationally, emotionally, and had probably hurt Cisco with his actions.

"I can't promise you that Joe West," he began, watching as Joe stood to his full height and crossed his arms disapprovingly, waiting for the rest of his answer. 

"All I can promise, is that I will try," Harry finished sincerely. He saw Joe's stance soften.

"That's good enough for me," Joe replied, smiling and stepping back a few steps to allow the other man to stand up from the chair.

Harry took the cue and did so slowly. It took all his will power to not reach a hand behind him and rub out some of the sting he was still feeling in his backside. He stood there uncomfortably for a moment, not knowing where to look, unsure if everything was settled between them or if their dynamic had been irrevocably changed by the incident.

"Are we done?" he asked seriously, glancing at the other man sideways, ready to distance himself if things had truly shifted between them. 

Joe dispelled any lingering doubts when he reached out and pulled harry into a one arm hug.

"Yeah man, we're done," he chuckled softly, squeezing Harry once before letting him go and giving the other man the space he probably desperately needed right now to compose himself.

"Come on," he said as he turned towards the door, beckoning Harry with a wave of his hand.

"You've got an apology to make," he added when he saw the puzzled look on the other man's face.

"Ah, yes," Harry said, looking up towards the ceiling as he remembered that part of their discussion. "You're right," he added as he followed Joe towards the door.

"I usually am," Joe replied immodestly and it actually produced a small smile from the normally grumpy Harrison Wells.

"Ah, I see what you did there…," Harry retorted as together they turned into the corridor.


End file.
